Ed Perlmutter defeated fellow Democrat Peggy Lamm on Tuesday in the first round of one of the most competitive congressional races in the country.

Lamm conceded the race after more than half the precincts reported. Perlmutter, who now faces Republican Rick O’Donnell for the 7th Congressional District seat, was leading Lamm 53 percent to 38 percent with 80 percent of the precincts reporting.

“I won for two reasons: my roots in the community, and our team worked itself in a focused and energetic way,” said Perlmutter, a lawyer and former state senator.

“We will win in November because people want change. They’ve had enough of one-party control. O’Donnell is just more of the same.”

The seat, open because Republican U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez is running for governor, is a critical component of the Democrats’ plan to take back the U.S. House of Representatives.

Signaling the fierce battle to come, Perlmutter’s campaign indicated it would link O’Donnell with President Bush, who is suffering from low poll numbers.

On a TV screen at Perl mutter’s party was an image of Bush and O’Donnell coming off of Air Force One together, waving. Below it was a computer with alternating images of Homer and Bart Simpson, Gilligan and the Skipper, and the Bobbsey Twins.

Barbs fly immediately

Soon after Lamm conceded, O’Donnell challenged Perlmutter to one debate a week for the next 12 weeks. Perlmutter was noncommittal about any engagements this week, saying he had a daughter to get off to college.

“He wouldn’t understand that, that sometimes you have to take your kids to college,” Perlmutter said about O’Donnell, who is not married and has no children.

O’Donnell said he was ready for the Democrats to tie his campaign to Bush, who held a recent fundraiser for O’Donnell.

“I respect the president, but I differ with him on many issues,” O’Donnell said.

A third Democrat, Herb Rubenstein, a lawyer and an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at Colorado State University, trailed both Lamm, a former state representative, and Perl mutter, a lawyer and former state senator, with 9 percent of the vote.

Lamm said she didn’t regret running and that the district “deserves a fine congressman and I’m going to do everything I can to get Ed Perlmutter elected.”

The nearly even division between Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters in the 7th District has made it a bellwether for many analysts in projecting how the GOP will do nationally in the midterm elections.

Democrats need to pick up six Senate seats and 15 House seats to take back control of Congress for the first time in 12 years.

Although the end of the Democratic primary came after months of bitter feuding and negative television ads, many political observers didn’t think Perl mutter had been harmed.

“There is nothing to take away from this race that indicates the Democrats will be weaker in the general election,” said Amy Walter, senior editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, which analyzes the country’s congressional races.

Walter said Perlmutter’s backing by many in the party establishment, such as unions, as well as successful fundraising and a strong offense helped him.

“If it was all warm and fuzzy, I don’t think it would have worked,” she said.

However, Perlmutter, like Lamm, blew through most, if not all, of his money. Perlmutter raised about $1.1 million. Lamm collected more than $725,000.

O’Donnell, on the other hand, raised $1.9 million and has about 60 percent remaining.

“No matter how you slice it, (Perlmutter) needs money to buy TV time and get his message out to unaffiliated voters,” said Democrat Mike Feeley, who lost the 7th to Beauprez by 121 votes in 2002.

Party pols react quickly

National Democrats have promised that Perlmutter will have all the resources necessary to wage his battle against O’Donnell. The GOP said it would know how much money it would funnel into the race sometime after Labor Day.

Because of the high stakes, national politicians on both sides immediately released statements criticizing the candidates. U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, criticized an essay O’Donnell wrote 11 years ago advocating the end of Social Security. O’Donnell has since disavowed that position.

The National Republican Congressional Committee dismissed attacks on O’Donnell, the former head of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education, saying the race would be about taxes and immigration.

Defying superstition, Perlmutter had lunch on Election Day with three Democrats who have lost congressional races: Feeley; Dave Thomas, the 2004 Democratic contender in the 7th District who also lost to Beauprez; and Stan Matsunaka, a Democrat who lost to U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave in the 4th Congressional District race two years ago.

Christopher N. Osher is a reporter on the investigation team at The Denver Post who has covered law enforcement, judicial and regulatory issues for the news organization. He also has reported from war zones in Africa.

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